White Chili with Tofu

In the same issue of Cook’s Illustrated that I found the Baked Manicotti recipe (Jan/Feb ’07) there is also a recipe for White Chili (with chicken). The combination of green chilies and cannellini beans intrigued me. For whatever reason I never actually tried making it. When I made other chili or looked up the manicotti recipe, I’d think “oh yeah, white chili…gotta try that” and that was as far as I got.

Well finally, two years later, I got around to experimenting with this recipe concept to see if I could make it work with tofu. I decided I’d use frozen and thawed tofu, as that would give a nice chewy texture. I browned the tofu in canola oil as the first step in the recipe. I set the browned tofu aside and added it to the chili at the end of cooking. In the future, I would add the tofu a bit earlier, as it would benefit from spending more time with all of the flavorful ingredients.

Frozen and thawed tofu-the texture becomes quite spongy which is chewy when cooked

The heat in white chili generally comes from green chili peppers. Some recipes were specific about which kind to use, some not. Some called for a blend, which makes sense–it’s all heat but different varieties use together makes for a more complex and layered flavor in the heat. In the end, I went with what was available and looked good in the market, poblanos and serranos.

Cilantro, scallions, poblanos and serranos

As far as the beans, all of the recipes I looked at pretty much covered all of the types of white beans, navy, black eyed peas, great northern and cannellini. I went with the cannellini because I thought their creamy texture would go well with the heat of the chilies and the chewy texture of the tofu. I used canned cannellini (Goya are my favorite brand; they have the most consistently good texture and flavor.) This worked out well, but I think in the future I would cook up dry beans for extra flavor.

While the tofu was browning, I minced the chilies and some red onion in the food processor. Once I’d taken the tofu out of the pot, I added a little more oil and cooked the chilies and onions with some garlic and cumin until it was soft (next time I’ll include coriander and oregano as well). Taking a major cue from the Cook’s Illustrated recipe, I pureed some of the onion/chili mix with some of the beans and returned it to the pot and added some (homemade) vegetable stock. This made a nice substantial base for the chili which thickened further after about 20 minutes of simmering. Next time, I will add the tofu at this point as well. I will also try replacing some of the stock with beer as the cooking liquid (gluten-free of course).

After the broth has thickened, the beans went in to be heated through. At the very end the scallions and cilantro went in along with the juice of a lime. These last additions added just the right amount of brightness to the flavor.

This was a chili with heat, but the overall flavor was much more delicate than red chili. I think it was saved from being too fiery when I took away some of the onion-chili mixture after cooking it down (my husband mentioned that his eyes were watering in from the fumes, the other room.) Two poblanos and one serrano would have done it; I started with three poblanos and 3 serranos. I served it with sour cream and avocado which further served to temper the heat. I think you could also add a little montery jack or some mild cheddar, but too strong a cheese would be a distraction. Some queso fresco and/or mexican crema would also be interesting. We also had some good tortilla chips on the side (Our favorites are Green Mountain Gringo, Miguel’s Stowe Away and Garden of Eatin.)

White Chili with garnishes

We really liked this dish. I’ll definitely make it again, soon with the changes I have noted to improve the flavor.

Pictures are here.

Baked Manicotti

One of our favorite recipes in my household is Baked Manicotti. Sheets of fresh pasta are rolled around a ricotta and mozzarella filling, nestled in a dish, slathered with a simple tomato sauce and baked until bubbly. Simple? Yes. However, I’ll borrow an expression from someone I know, this stuff is “so good that you could hurt yourself”.

After some discussion of the possibilities, we decided to make this for our Christmas dinner, knowing full well that there would be leftovers to enjoy the next day; Christmas all over again.

I had no experience with this dish until the January/February 2007 issue of Cook’s Illustrated. There I read a recipe for making baked manicotti that bypassed stuffing the traditional manicotti pasta tube. I was immediately intrigued by this recipe. The author describe a tedious, if not disastrous, process of stuffing pre-shaped pasta tubes, and the subsequent epiphany of rolling the filling inside pasta sheets. It sounded like something that would function like a lasagna, but might actually be a bit easier to pull together. The first time I tried it, we were hooked.

Now I did make one major variation from the recipe as published. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my husband can’t eat wheat. Therefore the pasta recommended in the recipe was not an option. The recipe calls for using no-boil lasagna noodles, Ronzoni being CI’s favorite brand. The noodles are soaked briefly, drained and then filled and rolled to create the manicotti tubes. A little further investigation revealed that the no-boil noodles are thinner than the regular noodles. I thought, “oh well we can make our own pasta in sheets for this.”

Kneading the pasta dough

So you might be rolling your eyes and saying “oh yeah, that’s what you thought, I’m so sure.” Look, we had been making our own pasta for years prior to the discovery that we can’t use wheat flour in our kitchen. We were very happy to discover that we could just as easily make fresh pasta from flours other than wheat. Again, we owe a debt of gratitude to the late Bette Hagman for her recipe for bean flour pasta in her book The Gluten Free Gourmet. The bean flour recommended in the recipe is garfava flour, however straight garbanzo flour works well also (both are readily available at health food stores and some supermarkets.) This pasta has a wonderful flavor, and when cooked is as light as a feather. (If you have not ever tasted fresh pasta, wheat or gluten free, and by fresh I mean pasta that has not been dried for packaging, you really need to try it. It’s light and airy and just a whole different experience that the dried stuff.) I should think any traditional Italian fresh pasta recipe would work for this manicotti recipe, as would purchased ready made fresh pasta sheets

It’s not a work day recipe, as far as I’m concerned. Making pasta isn’t hard, but it is specific, and it does take some time, but not hours and hours. My husband Chris has turned out to be the pasta making master in the family, and it’s his hands in the pictures that you see making the pasta. Rolling the dough out for this recipe could be accomplished with a rolling pin, since no special shapes are required other than something at least vaguely rectangular. We do have a hand crank pasta machine, and it does make rolling out easier, faster and more consistent. (Ours is the Al Dente brand, which is not necessarily the highest rated, but it has served us well for about 5 years). There are electric ones out there, as well as attachments for the Kitchenaid standing mixer, but I don’t know anything about them.

Rolling out the pasta I

Rolling out the pasta II

Ready to be manicotti

Alright, so enough already about the pasta. The sauce is a super basic tomato sauce flavored with garlic, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Normally fresh basil and parsley are included, but it is December in New England, and the fresh parsley and basil that was in the market when I was shopping was dismally substandard, so I decided to skip them both. (I certainly could have tried going round to some other stores, but I just wanted to go home.) I do have dried basil from the plants that were in my garden this past summer, so it still has a good amount of flavor. The ricotta filling is similar to what you would find in a lasagna recipe, mixed with eggs, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese, basil (and normally fresh parsley, but as I mentioned, it was a no go).

Like any simple recipe the quality of ingredients is imperative. Good ricotta is a wonderful thing. Bad ricotta is like chalky cottage cheese–your basic nightmare. Please remember, it is a major player in this particular recipe. Ricotta is traditionally made from the whey leftover from making Romano. There are recipes out there for making your own ricotta. If you’ve gotten in to making your own fresh cheeses, such as paneer, this is something to consider. If like most of us you’re buying your ricotta, don’t cheap out. If you can get hold of some local artesian stuff at your farmer’s market, or if your local Italian market makes their own, by all means go with that. Please please please if you are shopping for ricotta in the supermarket, buy Calabro. (Whole Foods may be the only national chain in the US that carries it; I’ll look into it more.) Pester your supermarket people to carry it if they don’t. I’m not just plugging these guys because I’m originally from CT, where they are based. I’m not going to name names, but all of the other major national brands have gums and stabilizers,which, despite lengthening their shelf life, just make them taste terrible. Period. I’m not even of Italian ethnic heritage and I understand this.

I have similar opinions about Parmesan cheese, but I am going to refrain from carrying on about them here.

Making the pasta is the most involved part. You can have the sauce bubbling while you mix up the filling. Then, once your pasta sheets are rolled out and cut to size, you’re ready to go.

Ready to be rolled

Nestled in, ready for the sauce and the oven

I’m pushing it a bit by crowding them in, but I did not want to start another pan.

Sauced

After 40 minutes or so in the oven, you have an incredible pasta experience. All you need to round out the meal is a simple salad.

It fell apart a bit while serving, but no one cared.

The photos are here.

Spiced Nuts

Over the last few years I’ve tried to make holiday gifts for anyone I’d like to give a small gift to (coworkers etc). Some years have been more successful than others to be sure. I’ve decided that it works out best when I pick one thing to make for everyone. This year I decided on a food gift. I wanted something foolproof. After a thumbing through my cookbooks and thinking about it for a while, I decided on Spiced Nuts. In one of my cookbooks I had found the index card that I had scribbled the recipe on after tasting the ones that someone else made years before. Since then, I make them each year around the holidays as a treat for us to have at home. They are pretty easy to make and are delicious, and much much better than anything similar that you could buy. Obviously, this gift does not work for people with nut allergies or for vegans (egg whites are involved).

Spiced Nuts

I am going to start taking more about the costs of ingredients. I think people might be interested, and it will be useful for me to think about. Here is what I bought for this project:

$65.08 for 8.39 lbs of nuts
pecans $18.35 (2.45 lbs @ 7.49/lb)
cashew pieces $16.01 (3.82 @4.19/lb
almonds $30.72 (2.12 @14.49/lb)

$2 worth of spices, (cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, coriander)also purchased in bulk. This is an educated guess, since I purchased quantities larger than I needed for this recipe for other uses, but it definitely wasn’t more than this.

$6 worth of sweetners ( I used regular sugar for some batches, date sugar for others, as some people would rather not eat sugar.)

$2.69 worth of eggs ( I used the better part of a dozen egg whites. I was able to use most of the yolks for other baking, but I’m just counting it here as a dozen.)

$9.75 (9.29 +tax) for 1 doz. quart canning jars

$10 on ribbons etc (mostly from the dollar store but I did decorate a few with some beautiful high end ribbon, but frankly the curly ribbon dollar store stuff came together better)

$95.52 was the total, which actually does seem like a lot for some nuts. But, this breaks down to $7.96 per gift (one gift=one jar), plus an entire Saturday afternoon to make (my free time = priceless). This works with my budget and my rhetoric.

I made 12 quart jars full. This was enough for what I needed, plus a couple extra just in case, that we will be only too happy to eat at home, if I don’t give them away.

Recipes abound for this stuff. I had my original recipe on my index card, which appears to be Martha Stewart’s recipe. A handful of recipes pop up on Epicurious. Turns out Alton Brown had the same idea (and there are plenty of recipes from the FoodTV crew.) The Splendid Table has another take. Seems like most of the usual recipe sites pop up in the results when you Google it. I landed on a version similar to my index card, with a few pointer’s from a sidebar in Cook’s Country (subscription needed) from December 2007.

I went with an egg white version rather than a butter version. I find the whole butter method a bit greasy after these things sit around (oh but for eating while still warm, it is divine.) I went with the oven method, because it would be easier to make a lot. I chose a combo of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and coriander for the flavors. I picked my three favorite nuts pecans, almonds and cashews to blend together, although just pecans would also be a good choice.

Fresh nuts are essential to this recipe. I cannot emphasize this enough. The best nuts around here come from the bulk bins at local health food stores. The turn around of product is high and the quality control good. An added bonus is that you can by exactly what you will use in a relatively short amount of time (a few months max, refrigerated if possible). Nuts are oily and therefore will go rancid quickly in your cabinet (or on a shelf in the market), it’s a fact of life. They may not have spoiled enough to make you sick, but they will not taste as they should.

The same is true for the spices. I bought mine in bulk at the same time as the nuts. They were so fresh that their aroma filled the car on the way home. That said, the quantity of spice in the recipe is very important. You want enough so that the flavor comes through nicely, but not so much that it’s like eating potpourri. 8 teaspoons total was a good amount for each two pounds of nuts. The flavor was a bit strong fresh out of the oven, but mellowed a bit after the nuts cooled.

As far as technique is concerned a couple of key things stood out. First, draining the nuts for a few minutes after tossing them with the egg white and before tossing them with the sugar and spice made a big difference in the final result (not draining meant some of the nuts were surrounded by a thin crusty collar of baked egg white). Second, lining the baking sheets with parchment paper was absolutely essential–other wise the nuts would stick, even to a nonstick pan. The parchment also made it possible to use the same pans for each batch of the whole 8+ pounds (I only own three baking sheets–if I’d had to clean and dry them each time, I’d still be making the nuts instead of writing about it.) Third, a fairly cool oven toasts the nuts nicely, without there being danger of going from toasted to burnt in an instant as is the case with a hot oven. 300 degrees was just right, and I used an oven thermometer to check that 300 on the dial meant 300 in the oven (a slight adjustment was necessary).

After the nuts had cooled completely, I filled the jars. During the baking time of a couple of the batches, I had cut out circles of wrapping paper, using the lid of the canning jar as a guide. I had wanted the wide mouth jars for this, but all that the store had left was the narrow mouth style.

Decorative lid

I had picked out different, fancier paper with visions of using the wide mouth jars. The pattern did not work with the narrow mouth jars, so I used a different paper that I had on hand.

I finished the decorating with various ribbons. Pictured here is the classic “curly ribbon”.

Fits with the festive mood

So even if you don’t make them as gifts, it’s a good make ahead party snack, or just something nice to have anytime.

Recipe here.

Frittata For Two

A frittata is a hearty omelette that is generally cooked first on the stovetop and then finished in under the broiler. It is one large, flat egg cake, rather than the french style rolled or folded omelette. It’s fast, the whole thing comes together in 20 minutes or less.

It’s another one of those concept recipes: follow a few basic principles and you can vary the flavors with whatever you have on hand or want to use. It’s also easy to multiply if you need to make more servings. Frittatas are good for a make ahead dish because they are just as good at room temperature as they are hot. You can slice them up into any sized wedges or squares for serving.

The only “special” equipment you need is an oven/broiler safe skillet. Mine is cast iron. 10 inches is a good size for a frittata for two. If you don’t have a skillet that you can put under the broiler, I’ve included a variation on the technique that will get around that problem.

Note that the handle completely lacks any plastic or wood.

Really you can put anything in a frittata, veggies, cheeses, grains, whatever you’ve got. It’s a terrific way to use up those small amounts of leftovers that you didn’t want to throw out, but that aren’t really enough for another meal. If you’ve got ingredients that are already cooked, it will come together that much faster. Instead of actually cooking these ingredients in the first step, you can just heat them up and then proceed.

Whatever you put in them, you just don’t need all that much of it. If you put in to0 much stuff, it will be more like “eggs in vegetables and cheese, etc.” instead of “cheese and veggies etc in eggs”.

How much is enough?

The photo above illustrates the approximate proportions to be used with 5 eggs:

• 1 cup or so of filling
  In this recipe that’s 1/2 cup broccoli and cauliflower and 1/2 cup mushrooms (about 5 average sized). Since everything is raw, it will all shrink a bit as it cooks, so I’ve used a very generous measurement of a cup. If you were going to use a leafy green, such as spinach, it works best if it’s a) already cooked or frozen and thawed, b) been squeezed to remove excess water prior to measuring and cooking.

• 2-3 tablespoons of onions/garlic/fresh herbs
  In this example, it’s just minced onion.

• 1/3 cup of grated cheese (packed)
  In this example, it’s smoked gouda–you can skip the cheese and go for a little more of the other filling of you’d like.

These measurements are not super precise. You can have a little more or a little less and your frittata will still turn out fine.

Broccoli Cauliflower Mushroom Frittata for Two (Printer Friendly PDF)

This serves two in my house (my husband usually has a pretty good appetite). Depending on what else you serve with it, it may serve another person or two. Double it and you can serve 4-6 for sure.

1/2 cup combined of broccoli and cauliflower, chopped small (frozen and thawed is just fine, by the way)

1/2 cup crimini mushrooms (about 5 average sized)

3 tablespoons of minced onions

1/3 cup of grated cheese (cheddar, gouda, havarti, etc.)

5 large eggs

2-3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

oilve oil

salt and pepper

Adjust your oven rack to the middle position in your oven. Turn on your broiler.

Crack the eggs in a bowl. Beat lightly until yolks and whites are mixed. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the grated cheese (not the Parmesan).

Heat your skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and onions. Cook, stirring occasionally until everything has just started to brown, about 3 minutes. Lower heat to medium. If the pan seems very dry, add another teaspoon or so of olive oil.

Broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms and onions cooked until everything just starts to brown.

Pour the egg mixture into the skillet right over the vegetables. Cook stirring constantly until the eggs start to set up a bit, about 30 seconds.

Sprinkle Parmesan over the top if you’re using it. Then put the skillet under your preheated broiler. (Do not walk away during this time. Keep checking it every 30 seconds or so until it’s done. Trust me, it’s better this way.) Broil until the top just starts to brown, 2-3 minutes.

Serve hot, warm or at room temperature. It’s fine to let it rest while you make some toast.

Variation if you don’t have a broiler safe skillet:

Prepare the egg mixture and cook the filling ingredients as directed. Place the filling ingredients in a lightly oiled broiler safe pan of your choice. Pour the egg mixture over the filling, sprinkle with Parmesan and broil as directed.

Finished Frittata

Kasha with Mushrooms and Onions

Kasha is buckwheat that has been hulled and roasted (NOT to be confused with Kashi which does have buckwheat in it, but also has wheat in it). It’s a tasty grain that cooks up quickly. It’s good on it’s own, but cooking it with herbs, onions etc make it even better.

Caramelized onions add flavor to kasha and most anything else

The traditional way to cook kasha is to mix the grains with egg before cooking. This helps the grains cook up separately. You can skip the egg if you want, it will still taste good, but it will be a bit mushy.

Kasha mixed with egg-you can see how the egg coats the grains

Kasha with Mushrooms and Onions

Makes 6-8 servings and can easily be halved

2 large onions (yellow, red or white or a mix), cut in half and sliced into thin half moons

10 oz of mushrooms (crimini are better than white button) washed and sliced

2 cups kasha

2 eggs

4 cups of water or stock

olive oil

salt and pepper

Beat the eggs slightly in a bowl. Stir in the kasha until thoroughly combined. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet on med high. Add the onions and cook stirring occasionally until caramelized about 15 minutes. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon to a bowl and set aside. Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet and then add the mushrooms. Cook stirring occasionally until brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and remove mushrooms with slotted spoon and put in the bowl with the onions. Keep the skillet on the medium heat. Put the kasha and egg mixture into the skillet. Cook stirring constantly about three minutes until the egg looks dry and the kasha smells toasty. Stir in the 4 cups of water or stock, breaking up any clumps. Cook stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in the onions and mushrooms and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot or warm.

Finished kasha with mushrooms and onions

More photos here. I like to eat this with Roasted Roots and Squash, pictured above.

Roasted Roots and Squash

There are a lot of recipes of this kind out there. I’ve been roasting these vegetables together and alone for ages. I’ve been particularly inspired by two recipes. First by Ina Garten’s idea to take leftover roasted veggies and make a tasty pureed soup (I don’t remember which cookbook of hers that I saw that in, I don’t own it). Second, The Splendid Table offers a great variation from Sally Schneider’s A New Way to Cook.

Roots and Squash Ready for Roasting

This is another one of those recipes that is more of a concept. You can use all, some, or one of the vegetables listed here, or come up with your own mix. The combination below is the one I’ve settled on as my favorite, but I’ll work with whatever I have on hand. I find the combination of very sweet carrots, sweet potato and squash plays nicely against the relatively sharp taste of rutabaga and the nutty taste of parsnips. The subtle differences in texture also work well.

A lot of people moan and groan when you mention rutabagas (or turnips) and parsnips. I think that like many vegetables, these have not always been cooked to their best advantage in the North American kitchen. All I remember of these as a child is waterlogged mush that had been boiled almost past recognition. Roasting concentrates their flavors and gives them an appealing texture.

Roasted Roots and Squash

Makes 6ish servings depending on what else you’re having and how hungry everyone is.

2 small or 1 large sweet potato

3 large carrots

4 medium pasrnips

1/2 a large rutabaga

1 small butternut squash

2tbs olive oil

salt and pepper

minced parsley (optional)

Heat oven to 425 F.

Peel each vegetable (seed the squash) and cut into cubes about 1/2 inch cubes. Lay the cubes in a single layer on two rimmed baking sheets. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast 10 minutes and shake the pan or stir with a spatula and roast another 10 minutes until tender. Don’t over cook or the carrots, squash and sweet potatoes will get very mushy and the rutabagas and parsnips will get all leathery and chewy. Adjust seasonings and sprinkle with parsley before serving. These still taste good even when they have cooled to room temperature.

A large batch is a good thing---leftovers taste good and also make a tasty pureed soup.

The finished roasted veggies (with Kasha)

The Kasha recipe is here.

Stuffed Eggplant

I love this dish. It’s more of a concept/ springboard than a recipe, since you can basically put whatever you want in it within a basic formula: mostly the insides of the eggplant, and grains , with smaller amounts of some or all of the following: other veggies (diced), herbs, nuts/seeds, cheese and beans. Even though it makes a really nice presentation, sometimes I skip actually stuffing the filling back into the eggplant skins, because there is always more than will fit and it cooks up just fine in a casserole dish.

The original idea came from the latest edition of the classic Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I generally follow the “Mediterranean Style” variation in the book as my basic recipe and adapt it depending on what looks good in the market/garden, what I feel like having and what I have on hand.

This does take a little while to pull together, but you can carry out most of the steps simultaneously.

Rice is cooking, onions and celery are sauteing, eggplants ready to be roasted

I prefer boiling brown rice on the stove top to steaming it. I think you get fine results in a lot less time.

Let it boil...

I’m serious. Some people already know this, but I still get funny looks from other people when I mention it.

Instead of the usual 1 cup rice to 2 cups liquid, you do about 5 cups of liquid to 1 cup rice it usually takes between 20-25 minutes to cook, although I like to start checking at 15 minutes. The obvious danger is that you could overcook it to mush if you don’t pay attention. You can certainly add more liquid if necessary during the cooking. Once it’s done, I drain it in a small strainer that fits over top of the pan. I put a couple of inches of water in the pan,put the heat on med and let the rice sit over the steam for no more than ten minutes. If I need it to stay warmer longer, I cover it and turn the heat off, so it doesn’t get mushy.

While the rice is cooking, I roast the eggplant (about 25 minutes on 375 F), saute onions, garlic and celery, and chop up whatever else I might be using in the filling. This time I used lots of fresh parsley, lemon juice, capers, pine nuts, a few artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and feta cheese.

Greek Rice Pilaf

I take the eggplant out when the rice is done ( but I leave the oven on, as I’ll need it to finish the dish). Once I am done mixing up the rest of the filling, the eggplant is generally cool enough to handle. I use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. If I am going to stuff the mix back into the skins, I leave just enough behind to give the skins some structure. If I am going to cook it in a dish, I’ll scrape it all out.

Once assembled , it’s another 20-30 minutes in the oven and it’s ready.

The finished eggplants. I like to top them with smoked mozzerella.

Usually one eggplant half per person is enough ( using three whole, medium sized eggplants) when served with other side dishes.

Buckwheat and Yogurt Pancakes

This is one of the few times where I will actually include a recipe, because it’s my own. I haven’t mentioned this before, but everything I cook is gluten free by default. It has to be, because my husband cannot tolerate gluten. It’s not just a dietary preference, it makes him quite sick. It’s not worth the extra effort for me to cook separately,(and risk contamination) so other than the occasional bowl of oatmeal or bagel for myself, I don’t prepare any food with gluten (that’s wheat, rye, barley, oats and anything even possibly derived from them). If you want to know more about the trouble some people have with gluten in their diet, the Celiac Disease Foundation is a good place to start. If you are looking for recipes, (esp. for breads) I suggest the Gluten Free Gourmet series by the late Bette Hagman. There a lot of people blogging about it, too, but I have to admit I haven’t looked too closely at what they are doing.

If you are new to cooking gluten free, pancakes are a good start to making something you might be craving when traditional mixes and recipes are off limits. They are not too fussy to make and are very satisfying. It’s too much for me personally to try to make pancakes on a workday, but I make them for weekend brunch or even for dinner. Give it a try, it might even encourage you to look into making your own pizza crusts, bread, etc.

Nowadays, you can find in most stores at least a few gluten free baking products, and often pancake mix is there on the shelf with the rest of the stuff. If you are going gluten free for the long hall, you should consider making your own stuff. It will taste better and it will be less expensive.

Buckwheat has been cultivated for food by people for thousands of years. It is not related to wheat. However if you buy products with buckwheat in them, such as pancake mix or noodles, be sure to read the label carefully if you are trying to avoid wheat. Often buckwheat is mixed with regular wheat to make these products. It has a sort of earthy flavor which is a bit strong to use on it’s own for most palates.

Buckwheat and Yogurt Pancakes (Printer Friendly PDF)

Feeds 2-4 depending on how hungry everyone is

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup buttermilk powder
(if you don’t have or can’t find buttermilk powder you could use milk powder, or leave it out and substutute a ¼ cup more rice flour; use if if you can, it adds a nice tang to the pancakes)

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt (lowfat or whole milk, either work just fine)

1 tbs vegetable oil

2 tbs maple syrup or honey (or use sugar and add to dry ingredients)

1/2 cup of milk, soymilk, nutmilk, apple juice, or liquid of your choice, plus a little extra if needed

extra vegetable oil for pan or griddle

Start by lightly oiling your cooking surface and heating it on medium. By the time you get the pancake batter ready, it will be hot enough. Naturally, if it starts to smoke, you can turn the heat down a bit. Starting with an adequately hot pan or griddle is one of the main secrets to pancake success. If you are going to cook up the whole batch before serving, turn your oven on to 200° F and put in something oven proof to hold your cooked pancakes, a plate, a pan, a covered dish, what have you.

Whisk together dry ingredients (the flours, the baking powder, the buttermilk powder and the salt) in a small bowl (if you don’t have a whisk,use a fork). Beat the eggs, yogurt, vegetable oil, and maple syrup/honey together in a separate larger bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients into the egg mixture alternately with the milk (or whatever liquid you are using). The batter is pretty thin and liquidy. You can see what I mean in this unbelievably bad quality video, but it’ll give you the idea.

Use a small measuring scoop or a large spoon to pour out portions of batter onto your hot cooking surface. Two tablespoons per pancake is about right (you can eyeball it, don’t worry). Unless you have a restaurant style flat top grill in your kitchen, you’ll probably only want to do two or three at a time, so you have enough room to flip your pancakes. Cook until the edges look dry, the surface isn’t as shiny, and lots of little holes cover the surface (see bad video below), somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes. Flip the pancakes (a spatula is the best tool) and cook the other side for another 2 minutes or so. Serve your pancakes right away, or keep them warm on that plate you put in the oven earlier while you cook the rest.

Use a paper towel with some veg. oil on it and carefully put a little more oil on your cooking surface before each new round of pancakes. Stir your batter a bit before you spoon it out, as it has a tendency to settle.

You can top these any number of ways, be creative. The traditional topping is of course butter and maple syrup (please spring for the real stuff, esp. if you live in New England). If your syrup is in the fridge, leave it out on the counter while you make the pancakes so it’s not ice cold when you pour it on. Cooked fruit is also nice. You can put some frozen berries in a pan with a little water and some sweetner, bring to a boil and cook them on medium until saucy, which takes the same amount of time as it takes to cook up your batches of pancake. You’re already standing there at the stove so why not?

Buckwheat Yogurt Pancakes with Blueberries

Grit-Style Chilaquile Casserole

This is another winner from The Grit Cookbook. I think of it as a kind of southwestern/Mexican lasagna. At the center of it all is one of the core recipes from this cookbook (referred to as “fundamentals”) Grit Pintos. These are dried pinto beans cooked with cumin, onion and bay leaf until tender. These are miles and miles above anything you’re going to get out of a can and well worth the minimal effort it takes to make them. They are super tasty all on their own, and keep well so making a big batch is no burden.

The delicious Grit Pintos

The casserole starts with a layer of torn tortillas covering the bottom of the pan. The original recipe specifies flour tortillas, but I think corn are much better. Slightly stale is good, because then they don’t get soggy. My required preferred store bought corn tortillas are Maria and Ricardo’s. I have not encountered any other brand in my local stores that is any good.

The next layer is grated cheese. I like a mix of sharp cheddar and monterey jack. Next, the pintos, well drained. Sometimes I like to top the pintos with a scant layer of spinach that has been cooked and squeezed dry. After that, a mix of chopped onions, zucchini, yellow squash, garlic and seasoning. This mixed is sauted until the whole thing is starting to caramelize before being added to the chilaquile. The caramelization builds flavor and just as important, cooks off any excessive liquid that the vegetables would shed while the chilaquile bakes that would make the whole thing soggy. (Hence also the importance of well drained beans and squeezed dry spinach.)

The squash and onion layer

Finely minced jalapeños top the veggies along with a light layer of the cheese. More torn tortillas go on top. Then a lightly beaten mixture of eggs, buttermilk and prepared mustard is poured over the top (sometimes you have to move the tortillas around a bit to get the liquid to flow down into the rest of the layers. A good quality buttermilk and eggs make a huge difference here. Locally I favor the buttermilk from Mapleline Farm. It’s really thick but still pourable and very flavorful.

Tangent: I’m comforted by the fact that Mapleline delivers, and by the range of products. If I didn’t have a car or something else kept me from making regular trips to the store, I could get yogurt, (or milk to make my own yogurt), granola, bread, butter, cheese, coffee ( and it’s the coffee I like to buy Pierce Brothers) and seltzer. If I could manage to get to Clementine’s, the  fruit and vegetable shop on the other side of the hill from where I am sitting right now, I’d never need go to the supermarket or the coop again. Hmmm…

Anyhoo, another light layer of cheese goes over the buttermilk mixture, and I like to sprinkle on some more minced jalapeños. Then the whole thing is baked up until slightly browned and bubbly. The buttermilk/egg mixture makes a light sort of custard effect throughout the structure. It’s good as is, or topped with a little salsa.

The finished chilaquile

I would have taken a picture of the inside but I was too busy eating.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

I was looking for a break from the Tempeh Chili and a way to use up the rest of the cream from Thanksgiving before it spoiled. I had been meaning to try the Creamy Tomato Recipe from the May/June 2008 issue of Cook’s Illustrated (subscription necessary) and never got around to it. This was the perfect opportunity.

You might be thinking that this is just marinara with cream stirred in. It’s more deliberate than that. The base is typical, sauted finely diced onion, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and garlic. It calls for butter rather than olive oil as the fat, which is a sensible pairing with the cream, but I think olive oil would work, too. The recipe also calls for a little prosciutto in the mix, but I of course left that out. Tomato paste is added at the end of the saute and allowed to darken. This and chopped sundried tomato help to add tomato dimensions beyond what the canned tomato would have offered. Dry white wine for acidity to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes seems essential. I was considering using lemon juice instead, but the brightness of it would probably be lost in the time needed to cook the sauce until thick. The cream is stirred in at the very end, with a dash more wine, cooking water from your pasta as needed and of course salt and pepper. It came together quickly, in under an hour. The step of simmering the sauce until thick provides enough time to boil pasta and pull together a salad.

Pasta w/ Creamy Tomato Sauce

For the salad I just went with straight romaine dressed with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette from The Grit Cookbook (which is another stupendous veggie cookbook title you should totally get). I like garlic in my vinaigrette anyway, but the roasted version is a wonderful mellow change of pace. When you make it in a blender or food processor it emulsifies into a beautiful creamy dressing that still has the acidity of your typical vinaigrette. I like the contrast of a rich dish like this pasta sauce with the sharpness of the vinegar.

By the way, The Grit is like the Moosewood of Athens, GA. I’ve never been there, but If I’m ever within even a day’s drive I will totally go out of my way to dine there. I mean just look at that menu. A lot of those goodies are in the cookbook.